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He said: 'The enforcement authority may wish to set out certain situations when a penalty should not be issued.

'For example, an enforcement authority may wish to consider issuing a verbal warning rather than a penalty to a driver who has committed a minor contravention and is still with, or returns to, the vehicle before a penalty notice has been served.'

Councils were also told to keep fines low, with guidance saying: 'Enforcement authorities should adopt the lowest charge level consistent with a high level of public acceptability and compliance.'

Patrick McLoughlin, the Transport Secretary, claimed the move was part of a 'common sense approach to parking enforcement'

Mr McLoughlin told The Telegraph: 'This Government has ended Labour's war on the motorist and encouraging local authorities to take a commonsense approach to parking enforcement is part of this.'

The Government has already introduced a mandatory 10-minute 'grace period' for expired parking tickets.

Eric Pickles, the local government secretary, said he became 'obsessed' with changing Britain's parking laws after a 'dreadful' experience with a traffic warden.

He said that as he went to buy a parking ticket 'a very nice lady stopped me to ask me a couple of questions'.

He told BBC Radio 4's The World at One: 'I had a ticket in my hand and by the time I actually got back to the car already there was a parking ticket on it. It made me a very bitter person and twisted my mind.'